Engaging the Culture. Impacting our Future.

Archive for April 2011

At Center for Arizona Policy, each legislative proposal that we support addresses a specific problem facing families, and each solution we work on with the Legislature is backed by credible social science data and public policy principles. That is particularly true in our efforts to ensure that children being placed for adoption through the state and state-licensed agencies are given the opportunity to be placed with a married mom and dad if available.

The premise for CAP proposing SB 1188 to require marital status to be considered as a relevant factor in adoption placements came out of overwhelming social science data.

In a recent column, “Suffer the Little Children: Cohabitation and the Abuse of America’s Children,” Dr. Brad Wilcox reports on a number of studies showing that cohabitation does not serve the best interests of children. The newest federal study he discusses is the Fourth National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect Report to Congress.

A couple key findings of this study include:

Children living with their mother and her boyfriend are eleven times more likely to be sexually, physically, or emotionally abused than children living with their married biological parents.

Children living with their unmarried biological parents are more than four times as likely to be sexually, physically, or emotionally abused as those living with their married parents.

This report once again reveals the deception of the argument that living together outside of marriage is a positive good and that marriage is only a piece of paper. Marriage matters – especially for children.

Overall, the stability offered to children in married homes is critical to their success. Thanks to SB 1188, sponsored by Sen. Linda Gray and signed into law by Governor Brewer, Arizona law now recognizes the importance of giving children the opportunity to be placed for adoption with a married mom and dad.

As of this writing, 12 Center for Arizona Policy supported bills have been signed into law. Two more measures achieved final passage. Both houses recognized the tremendous work of pregnancy care centers throughout Arizona. And, in a long-awaited move, the legislature referred a CAP-supported reform measure to the November, 2012, ballot to enhance transparency and accountability to Arizona’s merit selection system of selecting judges.

Another four CAP-supported bills await the governor’s action, while two have been vetoed.

In the coming days, CAP will release the 2011 Family Issues Voting Record, reporting on how Arizona’s 90 state legislators voted on important issues to the family. CAP also will release a recap of the 2011 session once Governor Brewer has acted on all CAP-supported legislation.

Track the progress of all CAP-supported legislation with our Bill Tracker.

Last week a friend of mine asked me go with her to an open forum and movie screening put on by a Planned Parenthood student group at ASU called Vox. My friend is a member of Student’s For Life and had been asked to sit on a panel and serve as a pro-life voice in the night’s conversations. I gladly went along knowing it was going to be an interesting evening at the very least, being my first pro-abortion event.

The main argument of the pro-abortion side is easily enough identified but what I had not paid much attention to until that night was the ethos behind it all. The overall tone, framework, and perspective from which these abortion advocates looked at the issue, the foundation of their perspective as it were, had escaped my consideration.

The debate on abortion had always been clearly defined in my mind. Was the preborn a life? If yes, then it is to be protected. But for the pro-abortion advocates it is not as simple as taking the stand that the preborn is not a life. Many try to claim that point is irrelevant altogether, as some of their comments that night made clear:

“The un-born may be alive, it is debatable, but what we do know is this: That a woman is alive and taking away her right to choose is taking away her life.”

Comments like this made me see that the pro-abortion side had absolutely no consideration for the preborn as a life worth protecting. This became even clearer as comments continued to be made about how “happy” and “relieved” women were to be free of the burden that an unwanted pregnancy brings. Everything circled around a worldview of self-fulfillment concerned only with gratifying personal wants and desires; all serving as the goal of human living without regard to others.

When this became clear to me I began to think of just how much groundwork had to be done at the base of peoples’ perspectives in order to make the protection of the preborn relevant. The thought of just how much education is necessary was daunting at that moment. I thought of the countless lessons instilled in me by my parents, which resulted in the beliefs I hold today. This took years of work, in which my parents and other mentors labored tirelessly to help me form and establish my bedrock principles. While all this was making its way through my mind I remembered something Dr. Dobson said at the recent CAP Family Dinner.

He told all of us to hang in there. This is a long and tiring fight; not the work of days, or weeks, or months, but decades. So when I consider the work yet to be done and the years still ahead that must be spent on this road; I take heart, because I know protecting life and making a stand for those who cannot is worth the struggle.

For those of you that have gone through The Truth Project, you’ll know Del Tackett from the 13-part DVD series. He’ll be coming to Phoenix this weekend and will be preaching at Calvary Community Church. Click here for details and be sure to check out what Del’s been up to with his new ministry, Cross Examine.

If you’re interested in finding out more about The Truth Project check out this video and then click here to find out how you can experience this worldview curriculum.

It seems like almost everyday the nation’s largest abortion provider sends out an email begging people to contact their elected officials to support taxpayer-funded abortion.

I’m continually amazed at their complete disregard for the truth, and their unfounded attacks on pro-life legislators in these messages.

Like this email they sent out today:

That’s not reality. The truth is any official who votes to deny public funding to Planned Parenthood is voting to block an organization that performed more than 332,000 abortions in 2010 from receiving our tax dollars.

They say that only 3% of their services are for abortion – but that 3% is responsible for hundreds of thousands of lives lost.

Let’s look at this a little closer: Planned Parenthood received roughly $360 million tax dollars last year and claims that these dollars do not go to abortion, they goes to other services.

This isn’t exactly accurate either when you consider that essentially all the money is going to the same place.

The funds they receive from the government may go to overhead costs or other “family planning” services, but because of this money, they free up other funds for abortion.

Indiana Congressman Mike Pence explains it well. The whole clip is great, but if you’re short on time, fast forward to 2:45 to catch him talking about this issue.

The plain truth is this: Regardless of the abortion industry’s accounting gimmicks, taxpayers don’t want any money going to an organization that performs abortions. Period.

(Representative Kimberly Yee debated Planned Parenthood Arizona Bryan Howard on NBC 12’s Lunchcast Tuesday. Topics included this issue and the abortion ultrasound bill that was signed into law at the CAP Family Dinner. Watch it here.)